1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device adapted to scan its environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Detailed knowledge about the surrounding environment is often needed, and is many times essential, for efficient extraction of information about the environment. In some applications, detailed knowledge about the position of moving/moveable objects is needed.
A conventional method of tracking targeted objects in an environment is to use one or more cameras. However, some applications might require information about the objects' relative positions with respect to a different originating point than the camera. For example, in certain types of image display applications, it might be advantageous to make the image content dependent upon the viewers' positions with respect to the display panel. Furthermore, image display techniques are being developed in which information regarding viewers' positions is used for improving display quality. If a camera is used for tracking the position of viewers of an image display, the perspective of the tracking images needs to be mathematically transformed to reflect the positions of the viewers with respect to the display panel, rather than the camera lens. This transformation process is both slow and expensive.
Thus, it would be advantageous for certain display applications, particularly, those utilizing liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, to incorporate into the display device the added functionality of scanning the environment for targeted objects.